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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to be worried about social housing?

330 replies

thegreenlight · 13/04/2019 13:57

Have found our dream home on a new estate - looks out over green to the front. Lovely lay out, super excited. However, we went to look at the one we wanted to reserve (80% finished) to find that half the garden backs onto a small row of 3 social rent houses. I feel awful to be worried abou this but I am! The other houses it backs onto are small private houses. I now don’t know what to do. I don’t want to make the wrong choice for our family. What if there’s trouble? It’s seriously making me reconsider. There isn’t much social housing on the estate (minimum amount I guess) does anyone have any experience?

OP posts:
whodafeck · 13/04/2019 21:23

Op said this

thegreenlight Sat 13-Apr-19 18:47:03
The one next to plot 25 is a large 5 bed house. The hedge is next to that, then a bridle way the other side and a toddler park. We are spending £450000 on this house, double what we bought our current one for (due to being 50 mins direct from Euston, thanks London buyers!) and it’s a massive consideration for my family. I have to get it right. It’s a lot of money to us.

whodafeck · 13/04/2019 21:24

So she was talking about house prices.

PookieDo · 13/04/2019 21:38

Give up
No one wants to admit they are this kind of person and can justify it till the cows come home. I applaud OP for being cautious with £450,000 but some of the attitudes about SH tenants are just horrible and part of the problem in itself
How do you expect people to integrate into society if they are still excluded from it?

Shutuptodd · 13/04/2019 21:44

It's sad these views still exist really. I have worked all my life. I now work in a school looking after peoples children and the moment anyone finds out I live in a housing association place I get all the crap about being lucky to live in a free house or if someone comes round they always comment on how its "nicer than they thought" while looking about for the sofa in the garden and staffy with a massive studded collar.

myrtleWilson · 13/04/2019 21:52

there is a "mentality" of a social housing tenant that exists beyond the tenure they live in? Gosh, all these years I've worked in housing and no-one explained this weird biological fact to me - is there a particular identified part of the brain that drives this mentality of social housing 'types' ?

PinkCrayon · 13/04/2019 22:04

I live on a newbuild estate, I absolutely love it. The social housing isnt near our house. Even so there are absolutely no problems, all very friendly people like everyone else on the estate.

IvanaPee · 13/04/2019 22:42

I feel sorry for you, OP. Because it’s coming across how much you love the house.

But honestly, I’d pick a plot that didn’t back onto the social housing. I’m sure I’ll be flamed. But facts are facts and it’s slightly riskier.

I mean, not every car ride results in a crash but you still wear a seat belt!

mrbrightside89 · 13/04/2019 22:50

I work in social housing and don’t know why but I’m actually surprised there is still idiots out there like you left!!! Of course you can but your house on a mixed scheme. What exactly do you think will happen? Do you think that all SH tenants are scum? on a lower income as you? Perhaps not as educated? Well let me tell you know that your wrong. Where I work we have all sorts of people who need our houses for all sorts of reasons. And just so you know it doesn’t matter where you buy your fancy “bought” house you will still be beside a mix of SH tenants. And another thing you may be “buying” your home but it won’t actually belong to you until you’ve paid it in full so it’s technically the banks because who knows something might happen to you and you might need to get out of your house and rely on SH one day. What an ascolutely stupid thing to ask. Don’t worry love your kids won’t come home covered in dirt singing “my old mans a dustman” just because they’ve mixed with the SH kids either 🙄

mrbrightside89 · 13/04/2019 22:51

Sorry for some of the spelling mistakes I am just so annoyed that someone would even ask this question.

Whitechocandraspberry · 13/04/2019 23:03

Why should she not ask the question? She’s investing huge sum of money She has had a previous bad experience She’s wanting to know from others presumably that they did something similar and regretted x y or z or they had reservations and it was best thing they did. Perhaps it would be better for her to have asked local people about different areas in which to live whether it was “social housing” (sorry don’t even like the term) or not rather than make distinction between social housing and bought properties. Everyone who lives in a city knows there are certain areas they wouldn’t buy in and others that they would regardless of the type of housing. The same house for half the price may not cause as much hesitation

purplelila2 · 13/04/2019 23:29

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myrtleWilson · 13/04/2019 23:39

purple you were the one claiming there is a "mentality" of a social housing tenant regardless of where they live - that is pretty disgustingly prejudicial.

HelenaDove · 14/04/2019 00:07

@Huskylover1 aptly demonstrates why the Grenfell residents dont trust the authorities.

HelenaDove · 14/04/2019 00:10

The house next door to my aunt is social housing and the council has moved a succession of alcoholics and drug addicts into it.

BUT................isnt this what a lot of MNers wanted. When they come out and still keep coming out with statements like how social housing should only be for the very needy??!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

mrbrightside89 · 14/04/2019 00:11

@myrtleWilson. You but the nail on the head there it’s the presumptions people make about SH tenants. What about private renters they are actually worse than SH tenants in my experience. Every new scheme will now have shared ownership or SH tenants on them now so you can’t avoid it. Up here we’ve had a massive downturn in employment which has meant many people who before had a mortgage have had their house repossessed and they’ve needed to go into SH and I’ll be honest some of them are the worst tenants I’ve ever had. In fact up here just now if you apply for SH your going to get a brand new build worth hundreds of thousands because nobody can afford to own their own house anyway and the builders sell more than our share on to us. SH has come a long way since sink estates and old style council schemes in fact believe it or not the tenants may even be human and have beating hearts although that hasn’t been confirmed 🙄 And we don’t need to integrate SH tenants into society they already are part of society they’re just normal people with normal needs. And SH is not “free” contrary to popular belief they are actually more expensive than a mortgage in some cases.

Brilliantidiot · 14/04/2019 00:14

Oh so there's a mentality of social housing tenants? So did I automatically change to this mentality when I moved out of the private rent and into sh then? What should I be like? Should I just up and leave work and go throw my sofa in the garden? Perhaps I'll go start a fight. Been doing it wrong working full time to pay the rent and other bills obviously, and working to do the house and garden up on my days off 🙄

Whitechocandraspberry · 14/04/2019 00:16

Why are people so offended by this thread. OP has concerns. Why shouldn’t she? Why is this being taken so personally?

HelenaDove · 14/04/2019 00:16

. I know plenty of well off people in social housing I don’t personally believe they should be entitled to, but making assumptions about your neighbours is awful

But unless social housing is for everyone you end up with the aforementioned ghettos. Can you not see that or is the cognitive dissonance too great?

myrtleWilson · 14/04/2019 00:19

Its cumulative though whitechoc - the OP's thread plus posters saying things like 'there is a social housing mentality' which is demonising and ridiculous

Original poster
thegreenlight · 14/04/2019 00:22

I think I’ve gone about this the wrong way - despite what people may think I really haven’t meant to offend anyone. I suppose it’s more that the houses are going to be rental rather than owned, I shouldn’t have said social housing but I only know that they will be rented because of this. Turnover is higher and less likely to want to put down roots and stay. I have literally NO problem with shared ownership affordable housing as people have an interest to look after it.

OP posts:
myrtleWilson · 14/04/2019 00:33

But OP - you don't know if you buy a house anywhere what the future intentions of your neighbours are. You could buy next in-between 2 home owner and over time find out that for their various personal reasons those properties end up as being rentals. At the very least with an HA you have someone to speak to and regulatory body and an ombudsman to complain to if needs be .

mrbrightside89 · 14/04/2019 00:43

So what your saying is Shared Ownership is better because they want to keep their houses and gardens nicer but SH tenants don’t? So you are just being snobby now and whether you once came from a council estate or not your just one of these people who went to Uni got a degree and now think your a bit better cause you “got out”. Now you see I don’t actually know if that’s true but see how I made that assumption about you as you have about SH tenants. Bet your the type of person who if they park on a primarily council estate takes all their valuables out of their car 🙄. It doesn’t matter where you live you get good and bad and there will be social housing on every scheme up and down the country so you’ll get them everywhere. As I said before unless you buy your house outright it’s not actually your house until your last mortgage repayment so your no better than anyone else.

Aroundtheworldandback · 14/04/2019 00:51

Always social housing on these estates- developers stick them in to get planning permission.

OhMyDarling · 14/04/2019 00:54

I’m in social housing.
Properties on both sides of me are privately owned, and next door but one on both sides are privately rented.
3 of these are ‘problem neighbours’. My housing association can’t do anything about them as they are owned/owned then privately rented properties. If they were social tenants they could document and issue warnings about their behaviours!

So I have to put up with their dogs barking, domestic arguments that spill out into the street, police being called by one partner about the other, police raid due to drug dealing, youngish kids climbing into my garden, 10 cars for 4 households so never any space to park my one car (single parent, no partner to fill the street with multiple vehicles), teenagers playing loud crap music at night, adults playing loud crap music in the day, random broken furniture being dumped out the front, bins that spill over the pavement and are never taken round to the back after collection day.... honestly, they’re a nightmare.

OhMyDarling · 14/04/2019 00:56

Give me sh tenants any day, at least you get back up from the landlord if they’re arseholes to live next door to!!!